[O Radha! Again, I am explaining the exact path to please God. This is very very important for the spiritual aspirants. The path to achieve the goal is predominant among the three parts of ‘Tripuṭi’, which means the traveler, the path to be travelled and the goal to be achieved.]

[The main goal of sādhanā is to reduce egoism and jealousy, which prevent the complete recognition of the human incarnations. Sādhanā actually means the analysis of the knowledge (Vicāra) by discriminative mind (Sadasad Viveka). It means that only by the boat of knowledge, can one cross this ocean of ignorance (Sarvaṃ jñānaplavenavia...). The true and complete knowledge given by the Sadguru (human incarnation of God) alone can give the final determination, which alone leads to practice and since practice alone pleases the Lord, knowledge (Jñāna Yoga) is considered to be the main part of the effort. Every devoted soul must realize that this worldly illusion (Māyā) will be running before the soul, like its shadow, so that the soul always fails to capture it. If the soul turns to opposite side towards Sun (since God and world are opposite), the same shadow will run after the soul like a pet dog. If one gets depression or fear or tension in the life at any time, that indicates his/her lack of faith in God. If you are a devotee of God, you shall always be brave, happy and fully contented. Many say that they are devotees of God on one side and on the other side, they fear and get depressed! Both these are mutually contradicting like light and darkness. The Veda says that a person limiting himself/herself by selfishness (meaning the person thinks that he/she alone exists without God by his/her side) alone fears due to lack of faith in the existence and dearness to God (Atha tasya bhayaṃ bhavati). A person having full faith in God always feels that he/she is the king/queen of this world (Āpnoti svārājyam… Veda).]

[When the unimaginable God merges with a human being, He appears like any other human being, externally. Eating, drinking, sleeping, disease, etc., are common to the human media. So, other human beings experience repulsion towards Him seeing this. Due to the repulsion, they fail to recognize the human incarnation of God like Me. This repulsion of the common medium is nothing but ego and jealousy. Every human being has an ego and hence, feels jealous of any other fellow-human being possessing more merits. No human being can tolerate the greatness of another human being. Hence, they cannot tolerate the greatest God, who mediates in human form. Although every soul is inherently defective with ego-based jealousy, the kindest God promises that His devotee will never fall (Na Me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyati…- Gita). Although it is not inherently possible for a soul to conquer ego and jealousy, it is possible for God to protect the soul from those two dangers. A real devotee shall always sacrifice the doer-ship to God and retain only the enjoyer-ship of the fruit of bliss. If a devotee of God gets depression in life, which may have any reason, such depression is to be treated as an insult to the omnipotent power of God. A real devotee, who proved his/her devotion practically, shall neither fear in this world nor in the upper world. God promised His protection to such devotee in this world (kṣema) and in the upper world (yoga) also (Yoga kṣemaṃ vahāmyaham…- Gita).]

[This problem of common media repulsion is not only limited to human beings on earth, but it equally applies in the case of energetic beings in the upper worlds (Pratyakṣa dviṣaḥ— Veda). Every energetic being (angel) experiences this repulsion of the common medium for other energetic beings, including the energetic incarnations of God like Viṣṇu, Śiva etc. Even Indra, an important angel came under the grip of this repulsion for God Śiva, the energetic incarnation of God and tried to kill God Śiva with his weapon! When God Śiva glanced at Indra once, he became like a statue unable to move and realized the omnipotence of God Śiva. Therefore, this problem of common media repulsion exists everywhere. Even though this is the rule of majority, exceptional rule of minority also exists. The devotees of innermost circle of God like Ādi Śeṣa, Garuḍa, Nandi, Nārada, etc., are exceptional to this rule of common media repulsion. Hence, till the climax of Nivrutti devotion is reached, the nearness to God is not good for an ordinary devotee. The Veda says that if you are near to something, you will hate it and if you are far from the same thing, your love to it increases more and more (Parokṣa priyāḥ…pratyakṣa dviṣaḥ). However, if you are in the climax of devotion, this rule does not apply since the climax will neither go up nor will come down.]

[Nandi is bull, Swan and Garuḍa are birds, Śeṣa is a serpent. Deity of justice is cow. The Vedas are dogs. These are topmost devotees of God and not condemned souls thrown into animal lives. These devotees are topmost intellectuals and deliberately turned themselves into animal forms because they don’t want to be in the same level of God, who is mediated in human form. They decided to avoid this common media repulsion this way, but they take human form whenever they want. One should learn from these devotees that one should always put himself/herself in the lowest position to avoid ego and jealousy. Even when these climax devotees come down to earth, they don’t prefer to be in the level of their contemporary human incarnation of God. Hanuman is not the foolish monkey jumping on trees that is seen today by us. Hanuman is a human being with slightly projected mouth, retaining the tail in the process of evolution. Ādi Śeṣa is a lean and tall human being, very furious and always hissing with high emotion. The several heads in these two cases indicate the multi-talented intellectual brain capacities. Garuḍa and Haṃsa are human beings with long nose having rich capacity in walking with high and long jumps. All these are human devotees with slight deformations in the faces establishing the concept that real beauty is only the internal devotion to God and not facial features. Good qualities constitute internal beauty that is far better than external physical beauty. Among good qualities, the best quality is selfless devotion to God. Such devotion shall be taken as the climax of beauty.]

[Every human being wants to be born beautiful. Everybody also tries to become more and more beautiful as far as possible with the help of cosmetics. In such a situation, these climax devotees prayed God to be born without beauty so that they want to become inferior before the beauty of God! By this, these devotees wish to be servants forever and wish their God to be the master in every angle. These devotees do not want to be equal to God in any aspect. Their devotion to God is mind blowing! The lesson that we shall learn from this is that one must see any human being as beautiful by its excellent devotion to God and not due to physical beauty or other worldly good qualities. When the first four qualities (kāma, krodha, lobha and moha) attack the soul, the consciousness recognizes their birth and their subsequent growth. But, when ego and jealousy are born and grow subsequently, the consciousness fails to recognize their birth and growth. These two develop in the soul unconsciously. Even the final result caused by these two (ego and jealousy) does not bring awareness in the consciousness. This means that there is no recognition of even the damage done by ego and jealousy. Hence, especially in spiritual field, these two are like two black venomous cobras that kill the soul forever.]

[If one becomes fully aware of these two ghosts and take sufficient care in every minute of one’s life, his/her success in spiritual life to get the grace of God is very very easy and does not take much time. Since this care is not taken by human devotees, salvation and getting the grace of God are not achieved even for millions of births. Even after considerable progress in spiritual line, even a great spiritual soul is suddenly falling down due to the sudden attack of these two black cobras, called ego and jealousy. Added to this problem of ego and jealousy, there is another wonderful problem of greediness! The spiritual path necessarily involves the soul serving and sacrificing practically to the climax-extent to the mediated God, who is hidden in an ordinary medium of a human being. While serving and sacrificing, the soul must be free of the aspiration for any fruit in return! Who can do such selfless service and sacrifice? Commonly, in the eyes of the worldly society, any devotee doing such selfless service and sacrifice to God is said to be the biggest fool (Prayojanamanuddiśya...)! Through logical analysis and quoting scriptures, we can help the people, who are not recognizing the human form of God due to their ego-based jealousy. But, we cannot help those, who recognize the human form of God, but, pretend not to recognize the human form of God to avoid practical service and sacrifice to the human form of God. In order to escape from financial loss in worshipping contemporary human incarnation, devotees select formless God for their meditation!]

[Majority of devotees, being the embodiments of greediness, reject the concept of contemporary human incarnation and worship statues only. They believe the energetic incarnations and past human incarnations represented by inert statues and photos, which do not eat when food is offered to God so that after offering, the devotees can enjoy the full food. If it is the case of the contemporary human incarnation, it will eat the offered food! By worshipping inert statues, the greedy devotee feels satisfied that he has offered food to God every day and at the same time, the total offered food is saved for self-enjoyment. This is not possible in the case of the contemporary human incarnation, which eats the offered food! This is the hidden reason and they say outside that they are not accepting the human form of God due to logical analysis, but, the hidden real reason is greediness! Even the Veda says (Dhanena tyāgenaike…) that the sacrifice of wealth alone is the path to reach God. I give a better statement by saying that sacrifice of fruit of work is the only path because the wealth earned by hard work is better than wealth acquired from ancestors. The soul is more bonded to its hard-earned wealth than ancestral wealth.]

Śrī Rādhā Devī uvāca:-
[Shri Radha Devi spoke:-]

[When Identification of the contemporary human incarnation and selfless service to Him is the total essence of the entire spiritual knowledge, what is the reason behind establishing statue worship? O Contemporary Human Incarnation of Datta! Swami (Lord)! There is no knower of spiritual knowledge other than You.]

Śrī Kṛṣṇa Bhagavān uvāca:-
[God Shri Krishna spoke:-]

[Temples and statues are necessary for low level people as said in the śāstra (Pratimā svalpa buddhīnām). Greedy people are the lowest level—devotees. It is a teaching model for a school student. But for a college or university student, it is not necessary. It is called as Pratīka (model). The Veda tells us to meditate upon the Sun assuming Sun is the Lord. The Sun is not actually the Lord. The Lord is not in the Sun either. The Sun-god is only a servant of the Lord. All these points are told in the Veda (Ādityaṃ Brahmeti, Nedaṃ tat, Bhīṣodeti sūryaḥ). The Veda says that the Lord is not in the statues (Na tasya pratimā…). The Veda also says that no inert object and no human being is the Lord because the object or the human being is only an item in creation (Neti, Neti). God comes only in the human form (Mānuṣīṃ tanumāśritam- Gita). The statue, which is in the human form is a model to teach the concept that Lord comes only in human form to preach the divine knowledge in every human generation, to avoid the partiality to a particular human generation (Yadā Yadā hi…- Gita). Once a devotee has understood this concept, the temple and statue are not necessary for the devotee. But, the temples and statues should still be protected and respected as models of divine knowledge for the future ignorant devotees.]

[There are four stages in the worship of God. The first stage is worship of the formless God. Actually, the formless God is only the formless power of God, which pervades all over the creation to run the divine administration. The light of the Sun is formless, but not the Sun. Thus, formless worship is an approach to God by worshipping His power, which is actually not the possessor of the power. The Veda says that Brahman is the possessor of the power and not the formless power (Brahma Pucchaṃ pratiṣṭhā). This kind of worship is most convenient to any soul and greedy people prefer to worship formless God because there is no trace of service or sacrifice involved in this worship. In the second stage, the possessor of the power is worshipped indirectly through idols and pictures. It is very difficult to worship the formless power of the Lord (Avyaktā hi gatir duḥkham…- Gita) because a form is required for the concentration of mind. Thus, idol worship is a higher and better step. The statues, which are only representative models of energetic incarnations and the past human incarnations, are worshipped by the beginners, who are not ripened to conquer ego and jealousy to worship contemporary human incarnations of God. Although the idol is only a representative model of God and is inert, idol worship trains the devotee to serve God with food, clothes, water etc. This involves service to God at least in the theoretical phase. The statues in temples serve the purpose of improving theoretical devotion of devotees, who form 99% majority. The people, who criticize the statue-worship maintain the photos of their kith and kin to see them often through the photos! The same concept is maintained in worshipping statues in temples catered for majority of devotees. The devotees feel the statues as alive forms of God and such feeling must be present as the basis for such devotion. The overall essence of all the rituals is only offering food and money (Dakṣiṇā) to a deserving divine person or at least to a beggar. Through such practical sacrifice in ritual, the devotee is encouraged towards practical devotion to God, which is nothing but Karma Phala Tyāga (sacrifice of fruit of work) told by Me.]

[In the third stage, the human being, who is a mixture of inert body and living soul is worshipped as a model of God. Every human being is treated as God although they are not actually God. This is better than the previous idol worship because service and sacrifice are involved in this worship in practical phase. Actually, in this stage, the jealousy towards another human being due to individual egoism is removed. Every human being is considered as God and is worshipped so that when God in human form is achieved, He will not be rejected. When all human beings are worshipped, the human form of God is also loved and treated as God like all the other human beings. At least, there is no negative approach towards the human form of the Lord, even though the positive approach is diluted. The positive approach is diluted in the sense that all human beings other than the human incarnation of God are also considered to be God even though they are not really God. In this stage, egoism and jealousy are removed and this is a stage of psychological training to cure the inherent diseases, which are egoism and jealousy.]